Authors:
Oge Marques;
Pages: 7 - 9Abstract: Rich visual information is becoming increasingly important in today's Web, as evidenced by the popularity of social networks, the extensive use of video as a medium, and the compelling graphics and visual effects in movies and games. Here, the author examines the process of searching and retrieving images using a visual query--otherwise known as content-based image retrieval (CBIR).PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Salim Sultan Al-Ruzaiqi;Youcef Baghdadi;
Pages: 10 - 13Abstract: The Digital Oman Strategy (e.oman) provides the necessary ICT infrastructure facilities to link and bring together Oman's government entities on a common infrastructure platform. e.oman supports the easy use of ICT by government entities. This column focuses on how the Oman Information Technology Authority (ITA) approaches integrating the entire government in the right way. It also examines one of the largest e-transformation initiative integration success stories in Oman, referred to as the Invest Easy project.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Robert R. Harmon;Bin Guo;Maria R. Lee;
Pages: 14 - 17Abstract: Smart cities are becoming a megatrend strategy for applying ICT to improve quality of life in urban environments. Recent technological advances have accelerated smart city development, and the pervasiveness of digital sensors and control systems has enabled myriad applications. Effective smart city systems should be instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. This special issue provides compelling examples of smart city systems that can enable the optimization or redesign of existing services and identify new value-creation opportunities.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Bo-Wei Chen;Wen Ji;
Pages: 18 - 24Abstract: The authors' approach to intelligent marketing in smart cities uses large-scale crowdsourcing based on mobile user behavior for market planning. Unlike most work, which focuses on the client side, the proposed method is intended for market planning from a marketer perspective. The proposed system tracks and examines user trails via mobile devices. To support distributed analysis for big data, computer clusters project user trajectories onto blocks in a layout map of an actual geo-location. The trajectory falling into a block is independently handled by a distributed computer that detects crowd flows. Because traffic flows are highly relevant to geo-conquesting marketing, two methods are proposed: local longest common subsequence-based (LLCS-based) clustering, and the computation of transition flows and heat maps. Both help marketers analyze crowd flows for geo-conquesting. Simulation of the proposed methods revealed that the system facilitated computation of large-scale crowdsourced data.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Maryam Pouryazdan;Burak Kantarci;
Pages: 26 - 33Abstract: Several studies on Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based sensor data collection and portable sensing techniques have been reported for smart city monitoring via built-in sensors of smart mobile devices. A key question in smart city crowdsensing is how to ensure the usefulness or value of the data collected from citizens in a participatory manner. Related work proposes maintaining distributed user reputation databases to overcome malicious attempts or persistent sensor errors. This article provides a survey of the state of the art in reputation-based crowdsensing in smart cities by revisiting remarkable solutions to collect and analyze data from mobile devices. Furthermore, the authors present a novel vote-based reputation-aware user-recruitment approach that unveils the impact of collaborative trustworthiness assessment with anchor smart citizens. They provide useful insight toward future directions, open issues, and challenges in this area.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Chiung-I Chang;Chih-Cheng Lo;
Pages: 42 - 49Abstract: The emerging smart city concept is a means of utilizing ICT to improve quality of life while optimizing city operations. Many issues are involved, including transportation, energy savings, disaster management, environmental protection, education, healthcare, and security. Currently, the government of Taiwan is cooperating with telephone companies and industries to implement the smart city program. Major telecommunication companies have actively responded to the government strategy and made it a principal of their business development. The program proposed by Chunghwa Telecom aims to assist central and local governments in achieving smart cities by the end of 2017. The program includes the "convenient city," "happy city," and "friendly city," initiatives, which comprise three programs and 12 subprograms. Because of smart cities' diverse demands, a powerful and effective platform is necessary. This article describes a cloud virtualization resource management system called CHT Virtuoso. Based on an open source virtualization solution, it is a cost-effective and well-designed system that fully utilizes the characteristics of cloud computing.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Wai-Ming To;Linda S.L. Lai;Andy W.L. Chung;
Pages: 50 - 55Abstract: Smart cities and related ICT are among the most popular topics in IT and urban management research. Smart city advocates focus on ICT applications that enhance the comfort level and business efficiency of urban life. However, other aspects of such cities, including their ecological and social dimensions, have attracted limited research attention. This article describes a tree management information system that intelligently cultivates trees, which are part of the ecological assets of a smart city. This system was developed to ensure that people and trees can coexist harmoniously in an urban environment.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Jelena Jovanovic;Ebrahim Bagheri;
Pages: 56 - 65Abstract: Today's online retailers face many challenges, some of which are related to the efficient and effective integration, use, and maintenance of product and customer data. Technologies that make e-commerce data machine-comprehensible could help to overcome e-commerce data management challenges. Here, the authors look into the intersection of Semantic Web technologies and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, and explore the benefits that can be reaped by both online retailers and customers. The authors' systematic framework highlights why and how the adoption of Semantic Web technologies can enhance B2C applications and platforms. The framework is intended primarily for e-commerce decision makers and practitioners, to help them make more informed decisions on how to address e-commerce data management challenges using Semantic Web technologies.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)

Authors:
Bill Fisher;
Pages: 66 - 69Abstract: The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) focuses on building reference designs or example solutions that others can use to improve an organization's cybersecurity. Here, the author discusses how NCCoE works with the private sector, academia, and other government organizations to identify pressing cybersecurity problems. He discusses NCCoE's 2016 projects and how readers can contribute to a reference design.PubDate:
July-Aug. 2016
Issue No:Vol. 18, No. 4 (2016)